


Every Casserole Recipe Includes Preparation Time

by Dotted_Faerie



Series: The Casserole [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Autistic Kagami Tsurugi, Autistic Luka Couffaine, Autistic Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Backstory, Bisexual Disaster Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Bisexual Kagami Tsurugi, Bisexual Luka Couffaine, Bisexual Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Bisexual Nino Lahiffe, F/F, F/M, Love languages mentioned, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug has ADHD, Multi, Oblivious Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Pansexual Adrien Agreste, Pansexual Alya Césaire, Pining, Polyamorous Characters, Polyamorous Romance, Polyamory, Romance, Some Fluff, actually she might be pan im not sure about her yet, actually two, also this isnt relevant technically but, and a disaster aro but the disaster is the chaos she causes on purpose, and a disaster lesbian you will see later, because they didnt want to be shitposters in front of famous, but one got vacated after a client joined, disaster bis, in this mari could be smooched and not sure if romo, little do they know jagged has access to the shitposting channel on the new discord, look i am polyam and soft, mari has a discord for her friends, polyamorous pining, she learned her 'friend' ways from canon adrien ig, so i will make soft polyam, wish that didnt use person first language but oh well
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:40:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26631514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dotted_Faerie/pseuds/Dotted_Faerie
Summary: Luka, Nino and Alya had started dating, first Nino and Alya, because of the zoo and the secret extent of feelings revealed that day. Luka joining the two? Well that happened fairly early, because a friendship formed from a shared crush does often lead to falling desperately in love with even your 'rivals' in love.This is a fic i will be slowly writing, and as crushes or relationships are seen in the story I will add them in the tagsalso hi im the author and im autistic, adhd, lesbianb, and desperate for comments
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Luka Couffaine, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Kagami Tsurugi, Alya Césaire/Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe/Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Luka Couffaine/Alya Césaire, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Luka Couffaine/Nino Lahiffe, Luka Couffaine/Nino Lahiffe/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Kagami Tsurugi, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Nino Lahiffe, Nino Lahiffe/Alya Césaire/Luka Couffaine, Nino Lahiffe/Alya Césaire/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: The Casserole [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1857349
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	1. Gathering the ingredients

Nino had been in love with Marinette since before he knew she was Marinette, and it was the icebreaker with both of his first partners. Luka and Alya had both also been in love with Marinette ever since they were 14-15, and the three of them loved each other enough to gladly listen to the others ramble about how much they wish Marinette would join them. It was not uncommon for their dates to involve a 10-minute rant from one of them about how cute Marinette was.

To each of them though, it was becoming clear who engineered most of the ... disastrous and chaotic attempts for Marinette to ask Adrien out. When Alya confirmed with her boyfriends that they were okay with Alya trying to confess to (and potentially date Marinette), the schemes she had come up with to confess were originally chaotic, and it took some help from Luka and Nino during a brainstorming session to make them more reasonable and doable. Or, as Luka worded it, to better match Alya’s actual melody, in a way to resonate with Marinette’s. 

The ideas that they came up with and attempted ranged from Alya giving Marinette Hershey’s kisses and a peck on the cheek, to Alya borrowing Marinette’s lip stick and returning it with a love letter, to Alya (with Nino and Luka) serenading her to wake her up on time for the trip Kitty Section and the arts clubs were taking. The final attempt she made could only have been less subtle if Alya had delivered it in print to Marinette while dipping her into a swan kiss… This thought was said by Nino after the three of them finished their arcade date. It was enough to make even cool and collected Luka flush a little, while Alya and Nino were so flustered at the thought that they looked like Nino’s favorite cap.

Her drastic plan might have worked if she had done it a week in advance. Alya wrote a ‘joke’ article on a public side blog of hers Marinette followed about how Marinette was the most beautiful woman in Paris, featuring quotes from herself, Nino, and Luka, (the day after she posted the article three anonymous users requested their quotes be added, and they were) before she then linked it to Marinette. Because Marinette would forget to open links she got in texts or in the server group chats, Alya also planned on mailing the trio’s confession letters to Marinette with a qr code of the posted link, a box of Marinette’s favorite chocolates and a bolt of expensive fabric the trio had seen her eyeing at the store.

Unfortunately, this least subtle of Alya’s plans, was posted the day before Marinette (the youngest of them except Nino, who would insist that a week is not enough time to matter for who is youngest) became 17… and Marinette had pulled an all-nighter the night before the posting. Marinette was a late riser on a day where she got the proper amount of sleep, and her parents decided that since she did not have any plans after school, that Friday she could stay home. When the trio went to check on her at lunch, she was still asleep, though she had woken up for about two hours around 9. After school they checked again, and again at around 5 pm. Each time she was asleep, although the Dupain-Chengs did wake her up a few more times throughout the day. Both so that she would sleep that night, and not get too behind on her assignments. She even managed to sleep through an akuma attack at around 7pm, when Tom and Sabine were out getting bakery supplies and got trapped in the fight. They were amazed to find her, seemingly entirely undisturbed by the chaos of the battle, which took longer than normal because Ladybug was visibly exhausted from the recent string of night and evening attacks. 

Nino, Alya and Luka got permission to have a sleepover at Luka's house that night, so they could go and give it another shot on the morning of Marinette's birthday. Any time that they slept over with Luka, it was too warm for him to use his weighted blanket like normal (as they learned after two sleepovers where Luka did not get any sleep. He did not want to burden his loves with the knowledge, and only confessed when Nino caught him awake at 4 am on the third sleepover), so Alya and Nino gladly helped make up for the lost pressure, sometimes even just laying as a stack on each other. Nino, who had been in the middle the first time they stacked was the one who suggested it most. It had originally been intended as a joke, but the three, especially Nino, absolutely loved it. It would be hard to blame or mock him for liking that though, since waking up with his face in his boyfriend's chest and his girlfriend's head on his shoulder was a very nice experience, as he made sure Luka and Alya learned during the next stacks. This night, even though they meant to go to sleep early, their hearts were all racing too fast for that, and it felt as though they would never fall asleep.

Eventually, like every night they spent together, they finally slipped into dreams, while in each other's arms.


	2. More ingredients from the pantry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short oops
> 
> edit 1/1/2021: Added things I had originally meant to add, corrected a bit. Chapters one and three are also being updated on this day

Nino, Alya and Luka came right after the bakery opened on her birthday to visit Marinette, deciding on hand delivering the confessions and gifts to make sure she saw them, especially since with the rain and only having Luka’s umbrella at the Liberty, Luka would be walking Alya and Nino home anyways. Doing it after confessing, in their minds, would just save a bit of time and lighten some fears. Unfortunately, Marinette’s ‘favorite couple she set up’ had started their visit earlier. Marinette had woken up early and complained about it in her discord server for her friends (her clients, with the exception of Jagged and Penny, were not part of this one, unlike her original). Kagami and Adrien were each up early because of an early morning photoshoot that got cancelled from the rain and fog, where Kagami had been invited to sit on the sidelines. Officially it was so that she could see how her boyfriend’s job worked, but everyone but Gabriel, including most likely Tomoe, knew it was just so Adrien and Kagami could have time together. With it being cancelled however, they were up and had been talking in their discord dms, and stopped as soon as they saw Marinette’s notifications in her server.   
Adrien and Kagami were at Marinette’s house at 4:30 am, gifts and food brought with them as Adrien hugged Gorilla a quick ‘thanks!’ and Kagami sent Tatsu back home, with a reminder to give her mother that she would be gone almost all of the day. When Marinette went down to let Kagami and Adrien into her house, after they went up to the apartment and sat the gifts aside for later, they went up to her room, where she was immediately tackled into a hug by Adrien and Kagami, who both lunged so suddenly that they ended up on the floor laughing as a blushing Marinette was wrapped between her favorite couple, each leaning over her and looking at her from one shoulder. They stayed like that for a while, Marinette, Adrien and Kagami relaxed, comfortable, and all three unknowingly experiencing their first side effect from their miraculous use as a team. Tikki and Plagg, who had each squirmed out of their wielder’s pockets to discuss the effects, and for Tikki to work on using her luck to keep the trio and others from noticing.   
Kagami thought she was feeling goosebumps, and technically she was. However, sometimes when a true Dragon Miraculous wielder would be on edge like that, no matter the reason, the wielder would have small scales emerge from their skin, to protect. At the moment, the part her body recognized her hiding was her face, as she buried it into Marinette’s shoulder, so it was where the scales were. When she next glanced up at Marinette, Marinette’s eyes were conveniently mid blink before Kagami layed back down, which gave Tikki and Plagg a clear view of the main patches of scales, though those would fade quickly, and a sign of a less common side effect. Kagami’s smile as she saw Marinette revealed that all four of her canine teeth were sharper than a normal human’s. However, at least if she was caught it could be understood as a side effect from being so bonded with the two and the miraculous… that would be less the case for Adrien’s side effects.   
He had always been someone to hum when feeling anything intensely, though he had also restricted or resisted the desire until he joined public school. However, his humming being so hard to resist was a dual purpose once he started using Plagg’s miraculous. He had not fully noticed himself yet, but often times when he was happy enough to hum, from deeper in him there was a stronger noise, as he purred. Tikki and Plagg had, from the moment they were assigned wielders, and like almost always, focused concrete effort into minimizing or slowing the side effects. Once a wielder was an adult, they were easy to control, and relaxing to release. This had led many miraculous teams of the past, before secret identities were so essential, to make a point to set aside time to be together and comfortably express the side effects. Marinette was lucky, because of Tikki most likely, in that the most extreme side effect she seemed likely to have is extra excitable and hard to focus in Spring, and risk of hibernation or similar in Winter, though unlike the other wielders, she was at least warned of these two. With Tikki at her side as well, and Master Fu, when he was around, certified as a doctor, they were ‘luckily’ able to get her diagnosed with the sleep condition. Well. Not fully luck, as Marinette was also diagnosed that same day by the other doctor with type two narcolepsy. Tikki was able to help keep Marinette awake in some situations of excessive daytime sleepiness caused by that, but for the ladybug-based ones, there was nothing to help or prevent it. She, her parents and the school at least had gotten guidelines on how to be safe and to expect it any time she got cold. The only thing that had worked on past bug miraculous users to help protect against hibernation risks, were to spend lots of time with others and somewhat leech their heat. This worked better on other miraculous users, especially mammal and dragon wielders, but in a pinch even bugs could help each other a bit. If Hawkmoth was not a coward about leaving where ever he was to join the fight, since the heroes had a mammal it would have been almost an instant victory the first winter, before Hawkmoth would be used to the miraculous enough to minimize some of the side effects, and before he would know about hibernation.  
For that moment though, they all essentially looked like normal kids, happy and in love. To Tikki it was beautiful, and to Plagg it was disgusting, but he saved his discussion about how gross the affection was for until he had Tikki drag him into the miracle box so that he could see his family again.


	3. Mixing the ingredients

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is almost entirely a flashback that I realized was long  
> edit 1/1/2021  
> added some things, fixed some mistakes, changed some things

It had been a class project when they were 15 that had led to Marinette researching different types of love languages. It had been the extra credit points promised to each student who identified theirs that led to her caring about it. It was her difficulties finding her own that led to her complaining in the discord at the time, and it was Alya that sent a quiz to find it into the server. No one but her was surprised that her two highest were receiving (and giving!) gifts and acts of service. Even the people in the chat that did not directly know her, had been second hand exposed to her excitement about the idea of giving any new potential friend a gift. Nino, who had known her since childhood, was not really surprised to know that her third was physical touch. Him and Chloe had basically been on “Marinette hug patrol” before Marinette came out. Almost every other server member was surprised about that one though, since Marinette was so jumpy.   
The day that the quiz was taken, Nino had to comfort his girlfriend and his boyfriend from the small stings of jealousy they got when they learned that Adrien, who Marinette had been so deeply in love with for so long, and still somewhat was (though of course they knew she would never hurt Kagami or Adrien like that), had that as a primary love language, though the trio took some solace in that Kagami did too, and that both of them were also fine with platonic physical affection. This fact was reaffirmed the next weekend, when the trio went to the beach with Marinette, Adrien and Kagami for the weekend. Adrien was officially there for a photo shoot but Gorilla turned a blind eye to him after the photo shoot times each day, other than to remind him to get his homework done.  
It had been fairly common since the first week of class for Adrien to be holding a blushing Nino bridal style in his lap after class because he wanted cuddles, and carrying Nino around was not out of the ordinary either, no matter when it was or where they were. Kagami had picked up the habit it seemed, and shortly after her first kiss with Adrien at the beach that weekend, and fairly early in her still-forming friendship with Alya, scooped Alya up like she was weightless. Kagami held her close, did a simple spin, and continued her conversation at the picnic bench while Adrien scooped up Nino like normal. Luka, after getting thumbs ups from his girlfriend and boyfriend, went to scoop up Marinette, but the strong baker’s daughter saw the exchange. When Luka leaned over on the bench to pick her up and scoop her into a hold, she used his momentum to her advantage, pulling him into her arms instead. She only sat him down when she got excited in a conversation, and suddenly moved both of her hands at once, dropping him directly on her lap, though she caught him with a blush and a stuttered apology before he could hit his head on the bench. Luka chuckled at her, gave her a hug for just too long and scooted off of her lap, before pulling her into the hold finally while the conversation continued. Nino and Alya staying in the arms of Adrien and Kagami for the rest of their chat on the picnic bench. It was a surprise when they continued being held as Kagami and Adrien left the bench, but Luka followed suit with his hold of Marinette. When they were about halfway back to the hotel everyone was staying at, Kagami and Adrien kissed again, bringing Nino and Alya to accidentally have a kiss. Luka sat Marinette down because he was trying and failing not to laugh Nino and Alya’s predicament, and Marinette was not even trying. After Adrien and Kagami broke their kiss they remembered themselves, and blushed. Kagami delivered Alya to Luka’s arms once he seemed to stop cackling, and Adrien did the same for Nino in Marinette’s arms, before Kagami picked up her clingy boyfriend suddenly, and declared a race.  
They arrived at the hotel 10 minutes later, Nino redder than any of them, to Marinette’s confusion and concern since he had not run. Alya and Luka looked on with amusement and delight as she immediately sat him down on the nearest couch in the lobby, trying to make sure he was okay, and that it was not heat stroke or something serious. Kagami, having sat down Adrien now, seemed to recognize that nothing was wrong with Nino, and decided to save him from Marinette’s mom-friend tendencies by lifting and spinning Marinette before holding her in a bridal carry. Luka kissed Alya and sat her down when he saw the glint in her eye, and was glad he did when she ran and picked up Adrien, giving him more tastes of his own clingy medicine (it was becoming the group’s favorite medicine, she realized). Luka went to go pick up his boyfriend, but yet again was too slow, as his boyfriend, still blushing furiously, scooped him up instead, giving Luka a kiss before walking towards Alya. He only didn’t kiss Alya because he remembered that it was Adrien in her arms, and that the trio had decided to deal with their love for Marinette before any of them addressed any other crushes they had. They had not admitted to any of them, but Nino was not oblivious. Luka would love a kiss from Adrien but not on accident like that for his first, and not before he at least tried to confess to Marinette. And Definitely not before they knew Kagami was okay with it. Especially since Luka and Nino both knew Alya would hate to ruin her friendship, even indirectly, with one of the girls she was in love with.


	4. Making sure the oven actually preheats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I aim for december 1st  
> I fail because finals
> 
> I aim for Christmas!  
> I fail because of family being nosy and homophobes
> 
> I aim for new years eve!  
> I fail because god has cursed me for my hubris and my work is never finished (and I am a little sad about bdg leaving polygon still)

Sabine, who normally would be running the register, and ran up when she heard Marinette gasp, was in the apartment only a minute after Kagami and Adrien stopped just laying on top of Marinette and actually confessed. She, while putting on the most-stern face she could, was prepared to lecture as Kagami and Adrien spoke, and as Marinette slinked up the stairs.  
(pov shift to Kagami because im sorry)  
“Miss Cheng, Adrien and I have come to request your blessing to date your daughter.” Even with my hands shaking, I knew not to hesitate. Adrien was even more worried, which would have been evident from the vice-like grip on my hand, though him tapping ‘f-e-a-r’ on the back of my hand with his other to make it clear was still appreciated. Sabine Cheng was in that moment an even more fearsome woman than normal, and in her normal days she could sometimes unnerve my mother. However, since Marinette had said yes to our confession… this was not requesting permission, nor forgiveness. This was letting her know how things would be, and asking if she approved. Sabine was still standing firm and imposing, likely sizing us up and trying to figure out if we meant well for Marinette, when the girl herself came back down from her room to see the scene.   
Adrien holding my left hand in both of his and looking nervous even with his ‘model’ smile, Sabine staring at both of us, an expression unreadable to me, though that is not saying much, and me in the jumpsuit-jacket set I had commissioned from Marinette after the friendship day celebration three years ago. Adrien turned around before I did, and from the corner of my eye I watched his face flush and jaw drop. When I turned, I was able to see what we had missed in our eagerness to confess earlier, though I did not fully understand the extent of Adrien’s reaction.   
Marinette had talked a lot recently about the latest set of designs. Inspired by the previous month’s streak of night akumas, she designed pajama sets around each of the heroes that had existed, even some that were only confirmed after the Hero’s Farewell. The Hero’s Farewell was less than 48 hours after Miracle Queen, and it was explicitly to send off with well wishes the exposed temporary heroes. In the speech Ladybug, who merged with the fox to become LadyFox, also announced that two temporary heroes she had only used once and were never seen by the general public would additionally be given their final farewell. The identities of the two, Multimouse and Aspik, were not disclosed, but Ladybug said it only felt right to include them in spirit. LadyFox used her Mirage to display what each member looked like, and then used her yoyo to take a picture of the display. Within 10 minutes the Ladyblog had received a submission of the display, with a note saying that although the illusion is temporary, she felt that the heroes’ work deserved at least more than five minutes. From the recordings of the fight, all of Paris knows that Alya was Rena Rouge, so its commonly accepted that this was likely a parting gift to her in particular.   
Marinette made formal wear themed after each hero, and posted them in both of her discord servers. Besides the test sets, which she always kept and modelled, she ended up being commissioned so much that she is still working through the backlog, and has commissions closed for everyone but Jagged Stone until further notice, without even using her normal commission gathering. However, with the insistence by her fans and commissioners that she not work herself to burnout, she began designing the new set. Pajamas, designed one set at a time and only a few sets of each being premade for easy sale.   
I shook my head out of the clouds to try to figure out why Adrien was so amazed by Marinette’s newest, and until right now unseen, pajama set. It was amazing work, the gown and short combination, and the fabric edges being so fur-like would explain the soft landing earlier. It was Chat Noir themed, but less obvious than the ladybug or Ryuko sets had been, with the main hints being the green paw prints at the cuffs of each, though the cut of the gown almost did look like a tail at the back. It was quite lovely on her, and I blushed remembering the time that she wore my colors. The first pajama set that she had made and showed off was a ladybug crop top and bottom set, made to look like the top was the wings and shell of a ladybug, and that the bottoms were the legs of the beetle. Her second was a mouse themed gown with grey fabric that looked satiny but felt like reliable cotton (which Marinette confided in me, was intentional, as she could not stand the feel of satin on her). The gown was so long that it would have been possible to miss that she made house shoes have mouse ears to match, and that it would be easy to miss that she gave the gown a detachable hood with ears and a pink and grey mask. The third was a gown with optional leggings, and it was made in two versions… since the original used sequins I could not handle the sensation of and she tried to offer me a set, since it was themed after me. Lines of sequins on the original to represent scales were replaced with buttons, but it otherwise remained the same. A zipper with a pocket shaped like the dragon’s three-part crest contained, and it was sized around a fidget spinner. Marinette, upon blushing when she gave me the costume, said she sized it using her own fidget spinner, and then gave me one of her spares so that I could try. The scarlet and crimson, of the set was entwined with the gold and almost shimmering when she walked out showing the redone design. Then the spinner slipped out of the pocket and she slipped on a loose spool. After landing on her chaise and letting me make sure she was okay, she explained the spinner.


	5. No really, the oven isn't preheated yet and its been an hour. I could have made the entire casserole already. Is it even plugged in?

When Marinette had first told me about the fidget spinner. I had scoffed and had only my crush to thank for me remaining polite and not appearing rude. I had assumed it was a merely a toy, but she was correct when she said that it helped me focus… when it was not the one she had given me. The one she gave me was distracting because it was from her. The night I showed the spinner to mother, she was also hesitant, but curious enough to set us a little test to sate both of our curiosities. Upon me performing better with my right hand busy, she began research and it became a bit of a ritual between me and mother. Once a month or so she would get a new stim item or sensory experience, and we would see how I performed with it. From there we would classify into ‘Studies’, ‘Relaxation’, and ‘Regift’ types. The ‘Regifts’ were useless at best and miserable at worst. The ‘Studies’ were pleasant sensory experiences, but not distracting. Mother herself found a few of these helpful to her. The ‘Relaxation’ category is a broad one, anything that does not enable my focus but that I find pleasant or comforting. Marinette had recommended worry stones to me when she saw how often I rubbed all markings off of pens when nervous, but the only one me and mother tested me using was one from Marinette… Not the most beneficial to focus when your brain keeps jumping to how, when she leaned from her desk down to yours to hand it to you, she bit her lip and blushed.  
Sabine clapped her hands together and got me and Adrien’s attention, and our hands separated as we startled. While me and him tried to regain composure, Marinette continued walking towards us, and brought two boxes out in front of her. It was only when our Marinette looked at her mother that Sabine stopped reminding us that she knew how to use a knife with her posture alone. In a look that carried so much information I do not think I could have parsed it even without being neurodivergent, Marinette changed Sabine’s entire demeanor away from murder, and into her picking me and Adrien up in a large and warm hug before setting us down.  
“You two need to treat her well. I trust you to try to, and I trust her to try to tell you if you are not, but I also know humans are fallible. Kagami, Adrien, you both… did not really get a chance to socialize much before this year, correct?” It only proved Mme. Cheng’s point when Adrien nearly raised his hand to answer, which she addressed when she continued, “Jobs do not count, the guidelines are much more clear and more likely to be followed. I mean people who do not have to be around you, people who seek you out for who you are inside, and not what you do or who your parents are. People like how you two seem to feel about Marinette. My only requests are that I know in advance by at least an hour on any dates, that I get an estimated return time on said dates, and that you three still do your best in your school and other activities. I’ll go take over for the bakery for a second, and send Tom up. He won’t be able to pretend to be angry as long as I was, so be prepared to either be hugged or to say no thanks!”   
With that she turned to leave, only stopping at the door down to the bakery to say, “Also, Marinette, Gina will be here around supper time and stay the rest of the weekend. If you want to introduce her to your new girlfriend and boyfriend, that’d be the ideal time.” As she actually left, I saw my girlfriend… I loved thinking that word and I was so excited to get to say it soon, turn a deep scarlet.   
“Marinette! We were so excited to ask you out we nearly forgot your gifts!” Adrien had finally fully snapped out of his shock from everything going on, and was visibly excited. His hands were shaking in the way he always wants to shake them when happy, but that he only did when it was just us, Marinette, or ‘Marinette’s favorite throuple’ as she’d call it. She was still flustered around Adrien; I knew that much of her old crush on him would likely still be present from the moment me and him had started considering the idea. However, it was certainly very comforting to know that she feels even a fraction of that for me.  
“Before I open my gifts from you too, can I give each of you a couple of gifts first? I have… every time I develop feelings for someone, I make a box I put things that remind me of them into. If feelings go away, it’s a potentially nice memory to keep, and… I have always wanted to offer one of these boxes to a partner before. But it has never. I mean…Not even a kiss before” She kept cutting herself off, seemingly embarrassed about having been single for this long. Adrien grabbed my right hand with his left, Marinette’s left with his right, and pulled both of us together so we could easily hug her. I could feel him happily tapping “L. O. V. E” on my hand, but the sensation was one I ended up quickly too overwhelmed to focus on. Marinette had set the boxes down when Adrien pulled her over, and her head was positioned in such a way that if either of us so much as moved, our lips would be locked. I was prepared to wait for her, to back up and give her more space, despite my own desire to lean in at that moment, but she was the one to close the gap.   
She and I each only had one hand free, but that was all that we needed to pull each other close and memorize each other’s lips. No further for then, but that alone was so much. Then she turned away shyly, and accidentally moved directly into her second ever kiss, where Adrien had been resting his chin on my shoulder the entire time as he hummed happily, the humming increasing in shock the moment that their lips connected. My smile and flush were already far more present than normal from the confession and kiss, but it only grew larger and softer as I saw them. 

There is something about watching two people you love with all of your heart get to show their love for each other… that is just absolutely beautiful when you know that some of that love is also for you.


	6. kyle. did you just try to say the oven runs on love? This isnt a metaphor, its a kitchen and if you keep it up you had better hope it can run on heart break too

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> all chapters prior to this one have something changed from the original version, mostly fixing it to include yk the actual plot. Changes made 1/1/2021

(pov, alya)  
There is something about watching two people that you love with all of your heart get to show their love for each other… that is absolutely heartbreaking when you know that none of that love will ever be for you.  
We made it up the stairs before Tom did, giving enough warning for Adrien and Marinette to stop their soft kiss, and those spare few seconds more before he made it to the apartment were filled with Marinette’s new favorite throuple telling us about how they asked her out this morning. In that time, me and Luka wrapped onto Nino. He had held these feelings the longest, we knew that he was the most likely of us to be hurt… and we knew that if he revealed his feelings (even more if it involved revealing our feelings) for Marinette because of an Akuma targeting her, that he would never forgive himself. So we sat on the couch while they sat on the loveseat and we all waited for Tom, with Adrien laying across Kagami and Marinette’s laps, Marinette and Kagami holding each other’s hands and Kagami resting her head on Marinette’s shoulder. After they finished talking about what happened, I admit that it stung less, but I still had hoped to be able to confess to my best friend that day… and doing it now that she was in a relationship seemed wrong.  
Tom finally came upstairs, and invited us to Marinette’s birthday dinner, but shooed us out of the house, saying he wanted to get to know his daughter’s partners more. He was trying to be intimidating, but when he turned around to address me, Luka, and Nino to dismiss us, Marinette cracked. Her giggles led to her father pouting as he revealed a board game.  
“It’s a valuable relationship test! Boardgame nights are useful!”  
“Dad you just want someone to play Coup with.”  
“Multitasking!”  
The three of us began leaving the apartment as the four of them began setting up, only to stop as we were suddenly lunged at from behind. Marinette moved and tackled me first, a hug so strong that it knocked me backwards and drug Nino with me, leaving Luka standing and trying to hide a smile. She had latched onto me so that I was fully supporting her weight.  
“Alya! So, I know you still are sad about the temporary hero thing but I’m going to want your help with the Rena outfit most likely! And it has been a bit since I made clothes for you, so after I get a design we both like, I might need to drag you here for measurements and fabric choices for your copy!” She turned to the boys before adding, “And I will do the same for you boys too but Alya gets first dibs of you three because of best friend benefits!” She climbed even higher on me, and I tried not to blush at her excited talking about measurements, made worse as I felt her muscles as she literally climbed to be sitting on my shoulders, before reaching her hands down towards mine. Confused, I brought my hands up towards hers, only to feel them be suddenly grabbed. Kagami, either out of jealousy or to help Marinette mess around and accidentally give me sapphic panic, had approached when I was distracted, and wove her fingers into mine, leaving the distracted Tom to go get another board game for the stack of planned games. She pulled on my hands with a smile, leaning forward and I did everything in my power to not turn pink under everyone else’s watchful eyes. Her lips gently touched my cheek and she whispered into my ear.  
“I know Marinette means a lot to you, though maybe not the same way she does to me and Adrien, and I know you mean a lot to her. I want to be able to mean a lot to you, and I want to get to know you enough that you mean a lot to me, more than just the occasional few hours at a beach. Sometime do you want to hang out as just the two of us? I think I could-”. Her whispering was cut off by a rumble in the floor. Another one, twice as intense, struck again. I felt Marinette scampering down my shoulders as the third wave hit, and then everything went dark as the akuma started its announcement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh? whats this? a new akuma? and it removes vision? What ever could the akuma in the next chapter be?   
> And... who will the heroes call for help if it is needed? Tikki and Plagg are still hanging out in the miracle box, how will that work?   
> Adrien and Marinette are both kinda wrapped up in socializing at the moment, how ever will they get away?


End file.
